November 2011

November 30, 2011

A 26-year-old West Texas man was sentenced Wednesday to more than 37 years in prison for a series of arsons in 2010 in Crane, including the burning of a historic African-American church to try to kill a disabled African-American man, the U.S. attorney’s office announced.

Steven Scott Cantrell of Crane was sentenced to 450 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Robert A. Junell in Midland after pleading guilty to damaging religious property and interfering with housing rights in violation of federal hate crime laws, according to a news release. Cantrell was also ordered to pay $550,780 in restitution to the victims.

Cantrell admitted that on Dec. 28, 2010, he set fire to Faith in Christ Church, a predominantly African-American church, in an effort to kill a disabled African-American man who Cantrell believed lived at the church shelter. The man was not hurt.

Cantrell ransacked the church, wrote threatening and racist messages in large letters across the wall next to the pastor’s office and "tagged" the church with references to the Aryan Brotherhood, the news release stated.

The church arson was one of a series of racially motivated fires that Cantrell set that day to status with the Aryan Brotherhood, the release said.

Cantrell admitted that he set fire to a house because he believed the resident to be Jewish. He set fire to a gym because he believed the owners served "Mexican-Americans and African-American patrons and because the gym was owned by a Caucasian man married to a woman of Mexican descent," the news release stated.

Cantrell felt "disrespected" that a Caucasian man would marry a woman of Mexican descent because he believed "the white race needed to be kept pure," according to the release.

WEATHERFORD — A Parker County jury sentenced a 30-year-old Oklahoma man to 20 years in prison Wednesday for aggravated assault and a charge related to the manufacturing of methamphetamine.

Jesse Scott Shobert of Lone Grove, Okla., pled guilty on Monday and elected to have a jury assess his punishment, according to a news release from the Parker County district attorney’s office.

After hearing testimony, jurors gave him the maximum possible sentence.

Shobert and a co-defendant were accused of forcing their way into a home in the Springtown area on July 10 and confronting the homeowner about damage done to a gate earlier in the day.

According to the homeowner, Shobert was wearing a bulletproof vest and holding a sawed-off shotgun during the confrontation, the release said. The homeowner persuaded Shobert and his co-defendant to leave, slipped out a back window and called 911 from a neighbor’s home.

Parker County sheriff’s deputies found Shobert at a machine shop in Springtown and he was arrested after authorities discovering a bulletproof vest in a truck Shobert had been driving.

While at the machine shop, investigators "discovered materials commonly used to manufacture methamphetamine" and called in officers from the Weatherford/Parker County Special Crimes Unit to assist in the investigation, the release said. — Marty Sabota

A Fort Worth father convicted twice of nearly starving to death his 7-month-old son has been sentenced to life in prison.

The sentence for Michael Anthony Foster, 41, is much harsher than the 50-year-sentence he got after the first conviction in 2009. That conviction was overturned by an appeals court that accepted Foster's argument that he had a right to represent himself.

Foster served as his own attorney in a second trial earlier this month, and was convicted again. This time, however, he was sentenced to life in prison. He must serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole.

The child weighed only 8.3 pounds when he was hospitalized in 2007, and eczema covered his body. Tarrant County prosecutors Kevin Boneberg and Kim D'Avignon said the child recovered fully and has since been adopted.

The family of a Texas teen who committed suicide said the Mission high school senior despaired that he would not get into college because he was in the country illegally, according to various news accounts. The family has said he was brought to the U.S. from Mexico when he was six months old. His suicide note apparently says he was despondent over his immigration status and lack of passage of the DREAM Act. However, Texas allows illegal immigrant students to attend state colleges and pay in-state tuition rates if they have lived here three years, graduate from a Texas high school, and work toward citizenship. A Texas TV station that interviewed the family of Joaquin Luna reports that the teen had good grades and wanted to be an engineer. -- Lois Norder

Authorities have confirmed two deaths and say there may be as many as five victims who were shot after responding to a help-wanted ad on Craigslist in Ohio. A 16-year-old has been arrested in the case, but his mother says that a 52-year-old Texas ex-con, in jail on unrelated prostitution charges, may have influenced her son, the Washington Post reports. Richard J. Beasley had received a 40-year sentence in Texas and was on parole and he has a number of criminal charges in Ohio, according to the report.

November 29, 2011

FORT WORTH — A man suspected of robbing three businesses Tuesday night was in custody after a chase that led to a car crash, police said. According to Sgt. Pedro Criado, the crime wave began about 6 p.m. with a robbery at a Long John Silvers in the 900 block of N. Beach Street. Witnesses told police a man wearing a maroon jacket robbed the employees. The same man is believed to have then robbed a CVS Pharmacy in the 1200 block of N. Beach Street and a Jack-in-the-Box in the 3200 block of E. Belknap Street. A call to CVS was answered by two employees who said only that there was a robbery, but that no one was hurt. Officers in the area saw a possible suspect and gave chase, police said. The robbery suspect "ran a stop sign and was T-boned, causing his vehicle to crash into a building housing a beauty salon," Criado said. The driver of the other vehicle was treated at the scene by MedStar and released. A MedStar employee said Tuesday night that they were dispatched to the 5900 block of E. Belknap about 6:40 p.m. and treated a female patient who was not transported. The robbery suspect, who was not identified, was arrested, police said. — Marty Sabota

November 28, 2011

A 26-year-old man who police say fatally shot his former girlfriend, her father and her new boyfriend inside her DeSoto home last week died Sunday after shooting himself in the head, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Alonzo Henderson, 26, was found wounded at the home on Oak Meadow Lane after the shootings Friday morning, the newspaper reported. He died two days later.

November 23, 2011

A Fort Worth man has received the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of receiving child pornography, according to a new release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. U.S. District Judge John McBryde also ordered lifetime supervision for Christopher T. King, 34, after his release from federal prison. King admitted to using the Internet to search for child pornography. The Fort Worth police department and federal agencies investigated the case.

Charles Griffith, 39, of Grand Prairie told investigators he stabbed a couple to death in a bloody frenzy outside of Mart, Texas, in September. On Nov. 22, Griffith and Katherine Diane Griffith were both indicted for the slayings of Jeffrey Summers and Pam Lykins, a West Texas TV station reports. Charles Griffith was arrested in Grand Prairie Sept. 13. No information is available about whether Charles Griffith is related to Katherine Griffith.

A Texas couple who were smuggling jaguar pelts and selling them in Texas and Florida have pleaded guilty to violating the Endangered Species Act, a Florida TV station reports. Elias Garcia and Maria Plancarte were caught in a sting by undercover U.S. wildlife agents. The couple sold the skins to the agents for thousands of dollars and told them that they would bring in more skins. Garcia and Plancarte were arrested in August as they crossed the border into Brownsville from Mexico, the Valley Morning Star reported. The couple, from La Feria, face up to five years in prison when sentenced. Jaguars are still hunted for their fur and also are endangered by their loss of habitat. Jaguars used to roam from East Texas to the Hill Country and were the largest of the wild cats in Texas, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The last ones in Texas were believed killed in the 1940s. -- Lois Norder